# Shyama Dash > UX Researcher and Designer blending design, analytics, research, and technology into people-centered experiences. MS in HCI candidate at Indiana University Indianapolis, with prior experience as a UX Research Intern at MathWorks and 3 years as a Consultant at Deloitte. The gap between need and design is the work. Shyama's background spans enterprise consulting, applied UX research, and generative-AI product design — studying not just whether people can use a system, but why they reach for it in the first place. Contact: shyamadash0@gmail.com · linkedin.com/in/shyamadash · Resume: https://www.shyamadash.com/assets/Resume_ShyamaPrasadDash%20-%20CLS.pdf ## Background - MathWorks — UX Research Intern, May–Aug 2026, Natick MA. Conducted 3 end-to-end UX research studies on expert engineering workflows in MATLAB and Simulink, including an agentic AI usability evaluation. - Deloitte — Analyst → Consultant, Aug 2021–Nov 2024. Delivered enterprise Oracle EPM financial-systems solutions for 8 global clients across the UK, US, and Australia. - Ren — Capstone UX Researcher, Jan–Dec 2026. Led UX research for a donor-socialization platform for a donor-advised-fund company, reaching 85% problem-market fit. - STEW Lab, IU Indianapolis — Qualitative UX Researcher, Aug 2025–present. First-authored a paper accepted to CSCW 2026. - IU Indianapolis — Graduate Assistant, May 2025–present. Overhauled UX for a program supporting 500+ graduate students; 54% increase in sign-ups. ## Case Studies - [MathWorks: UX Research for Sensor Fusion and Tracking Toolbox & Simulink](https://www.shyamadash.com/#/work/mathworks): UX Research Intern, May–Aug 2026. Three research projects in a technical computing environment where users are fluent domain experts and workflows are highly non-linear: generative research to inform requirements for a feature within the Sensor Fusion and Tracking Toolbox, via semi-structured contextual inquiry and thematic analysis; a structured evaluation framework for assessing how autonomous AI agents navigate domain-specific technical workflows, mapping where agents excelled and where they needed further scaffolding; and moderated remote usability testing for a Simulink product. Also explored how engineering-aligned research deliverables and AI-queryable research artifacts can support development workflows and cross-functional collaboration. Under NDA; specific findings, user insights, and product recommendations cannot be disclosed — details here are structural and methodological. - [IU RedLab: UX Research for Team Awareness Kit based Emergency Response Hub](https://www.shyamadash.com/#/work/redlab): Research mapping coordination breakdowns between public safety and utility crews during emergencies, where disconnected systems (dispatch logs, outage dashboards, phone calls) delay response and put field crews at risk. Proposed an AI-enhanced shared operating picture built on TAK (Team Awareness Kit) that ingests radio transcripts and outage data to keep every agency on one live map without replacing their existing tools. Five in-depth interviews, 100+ coded data points. Research supported a $100K grant application for a national telecommunications utility provider. - [Deloitte: Enterprise Performance & Financial Workflow Redesign](https://www.shyamadash.com/#/work/oracleepm): Redesigned legacy enterprise costing and financial-planning systems into Oracle EPM architectures for Fortune 500 and healthcare finance teams, where a single planning cycle previously took 3–5 days and 12+ manual file loads. Combined contextual inquiry, workflow mapping, and technical system audits; designed role-specific UIs for analysts, SMEs, and executives; prototyped in Excel before rebuilding in Oracle EPM. Result: 60–90% reduction in process execution time, ~80% fewer allocation rules. Won an internal Deloitte award. Under NDA; client specifics are confidential. - [Deloitte: UX Design for Conversational AI Assistant for Financial Planning & Analysis](https://www.shyamadash.com/#/work/epmgenai): UX design for an internal generative-AI initiative integrating GPT-4 with Oracle EPM, letting finance teams query ERP data in plain English instead of navigating dashboards (42% of FP&A work was manual, per industry data). Designed around three tenets — transparency, reusability, approachability — for three user groups (analysts, executives, planners). Played a dual UX-designer and integration-developer role. Result: ~75% reduction in time-to-insight; non-technical users completing queries without IT support. Won an internal Deloitte award. Under NDA. - [The Non-Perceiving Listener: AI Chatbots in Mental Health (STEW Lab, IU Indianapolis)](https://www.shyamadash.com/#/work/stewlab): First-authored qualitative HCI research study, accepted to CSCW 2026 (Strong Accept, 5/5 confidence). 22 semi-structured interviews investigating why college students sometimes deliberately choose AI chatbots over available human support for mental health. Introduces the "non-perceiving listener" construct — AI is the only support node combining responsiveness with zero perceived social cost of disclosure. Identifies six specific situations where students turn to AI, and surfaces a risk: students with the fewest other resources rely on AI most heavily, despite its limitations. - [UX Design for Nest: a Personal Finance App for Students with Irregular Income](https://www.shyamadash.com/#/work/nest): Academic UX research and design project (IU Indianapolis) building a financial app for college students dealing with irregular income and shared expenses. 30 exploratory interviews and 15 task-based testing sessions across low/mid/high-fidelity stages. Result: 100% task success rate, 98% faster task completion vs. baseline, 29% increase in satisfaction. - [UX Design for IndyQuest: A Gamified Exploration Experience for Indianapolis](https://www.shyamadash.com/#/work/indyquest): Academic UX design project (team of 5) creating a hybrid physical-digital system — kiosks, collectible postcards, and a mobile app — that turns exploring a car-centric city into a themed scavenger hunt. Led kiosk and postcard interaction design, including 3D kiosk renders in Blender. Iterative testing raised satisfaction from 3.7/5 to 4.2/5. Academic evaluation score: 97.5%. ## Optional - [Full interactive site](https://www.shyamadash.com/): the summaries above; the live site has full visuals, prototypes, and interaction detail behind each case study.